Iterative Classifier Training on Online Social Networks

ABSTRACT

One or more computing devices may access, from a set of profile objects each associated with an entity profile, a set of training objects each associated with an object-classification. The devices may identify, by an object-classifier algorithm, from a first set of content objects associated with the set of training objects, a first set of features each having a feature score indicating a correlation value with the object-classification. Based on the first set of features the devices may update the object-classifier algorithm and classify, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, one or more of the profile objects as being associated with the object-classification. The devices may identify, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, from a second set of content objects associated with the classified profile objects, a second set of features having feature scores greater than a threshold feature score, and update the object-classifier algorithm based on the second set of features.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/711,316, filed 11 Dec. 2019, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/556,854, filed 1Dec. 2014, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,552,759 on 4 Feb. 2020, whichare incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to online social networks, and inparticular to classifying objects within a social-networkingenvironment.

BACKGROUND

A social-networking system, which may include a social-networkingwebsite, may enable its users (such as persons or organizations) tointeract with it and with each other through it. The social-networkingsystem may, with input from a user, create and store in thesocial-networking system a user profile associated with the user. Theuser profile may include demographic information, communication-channelinformation, and information on personal interests of the user. Thesocial-networking system may also, with input from a user, create andstore a record of relationships of the user with other users of thesocial-networking system, as well as provide services (e.g. wall posts,photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, or advertisements)to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social-networking system may send over one or more networks contentor messages related to its services to a mobile or other computingdevice of a user. A user may also install software applications on amobile or other computing device of the user for accessing a userprofile of the user and other data within the social-networking system.The social-networking system may generate a personalized set of contentobjects to display to a user, such as a newsfeed of aggregated storiesof other users connected to the user.

Social-graph analysis views social relationships in terms of networktheory consisting of nodes and edges. Nodes represent the individualactors within the networks, and edges represent the relationshipsbetween the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often verycomplex. There can be many types of nodes and many types of edges forconnecting nodes. In its simplest form, a social graph is a map of allof the relevant edges between all the nodes being studied.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

In particular embodiments, a social-networking system may determine anobject-classifier algorithm through an iterative classifier trainingprocess. An object-classifier algorithm may be used to determine whetheran object has a particular object-classification associated with theobject-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, there may bemultiple object-classifier algorithms, and each algorithm may beassociated with a particular object-classification (and vice versa). Anobject-classifier algorithm may be used to classify posts (or othersuitable objects) associated with the online social network based oncomments associated with the posts. As an example and not by way oflimitation, object-classifiers may be used to analyze posts and commentsto determine whether a person is looking for a particular thing orservice (e.g., a doctor, plumber, handyman, or car mechanic) or whethera person has a particular emotion or feeling (e.g., proud, happy,hungry, or tired).

Before beginning an iterative training process, an initial round offiltering and scoring may be performed on a set of objects to generate atraining set of objects where each object in the training set has aparticular object-classification. The training set can be used as aninput to an iterative training process to determine an object-classifieralgorithm for the particular object-classification. In particularembodiments, an object-classifier algorithm may be trained based oncomments associated with the objects in the training set of objects. Thetraining process may continue to iterate by accessing additional sets ofobjects for training the classifier and for classifying objects with theclassifier. The training process may be repeated any suitable number ofiterations. Through each iteration, the object-classifier algorithm maybe refined until an object-classifier algorithm with a desired level ofprecision, recall, or accuracy has been obtained.

The embodiments disclosed above are only examples, and the scope of thisdisclosure is not limited to them. Particular embodiments may includeall, some, or none of the components, elements, features, functions,operations, or steps of the embodiments disclosed above. Embodimentsaccording to the invention are in particular disclosed in the attachedclaims directed to a method, a storage medium, a system and a computerprogram product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claim category,e.g. method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g. system, aswell. The dependencies or references back in the attached claims arechosen for formal reasons only. However any subject matter resultingfrom a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (in particularmultiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that any combinationof claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can be claimedregardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims. Thesubject-matter which can be claimed comprises not only the combinationsof features as set out in the attached claims but also any othercombination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned inthe claims can be combined with any other feature or combination ofother features in the claims. Furthermore, any of the embodiments andfeatures described or depicted herein can be claimed in a separate claimand/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described ordepicted herein or with any of the features of the attached claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment associated with asocial-networking system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example social graph.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for determining anobject-classifier through iterative classifier training.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS System Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 associated with asocial-networking system. Network environment 100 includes client system130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system 170 connectedto each other by a network 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates a particulararrangement of client system 130, social-networking system 160,third-party system 170, and network 110, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable arrangement of client system 130, social-networking system160, third-party system 170, and network 110. As an example and not byway of limitation, two or more of client system 130, social-networkingsystem 160, and third-party system 170 may be connected to each otherdirectly, bypassing network 110. As another example, two or more ofclient system 130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system170 may be physically or logically co-located with each other in wholeor in part. Moreover, although FIG. 1 illustrates a particular number ofclient systems 130, social-networking systems 160, third-party systems170, and networks 110, this disclosure contemplates any suitable numberof client systems 130, social-networking systems 160, third-partysystems 170, and networks 110. As an example and not by way oflimitation, network environment 100 may include multiple client system130, social-networking systems 160, third-party systems 170, andnetworks 110.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 110. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 110 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 110 may include one or more networks110.

Links 150 may connect client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 to communication network 110 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 150. Inparticular embodiments, one or more links 150 include one or morewireline (such as for example Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data OverCable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)), wireless (such as forexample Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), or optical (such as for example Synchronous Optical Network(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particularembodiments, one or more links 150 each include an ad hoc network, anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, aportion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a cellulartechnology-based network, a satellite communications technology-basednetwork, another link 150, or a combination of two or more such links150. Links 150 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 100. One or more first links 150 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 150.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may be an electronic deviceincluding hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientsystem 130. As an example and not by way of limitation, client system130 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer, notebookor laptop computer, netbook, a tablet computer, e-book reader, GPSdevice, camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld electronicdevice, cellular telephone, smartphone, other suitable electronicdevice, or any suitable combination thereof. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable client systems 130. Client system 130 mayenable a network user at client system 130 to access network 110. Clientsystem 130 may enable its user to communicate with other users at otherclient systems 130.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include a web browser132, and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or other extensions. Auser at client system 130 may enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) orother address directing the web browser 132 to a particular server (suchas server 162, or a server associated with third-party system 170), andthe web browser 132 may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)request and communicate the HTTP request to server. The server mayaccept the HTTP request and communicate to client system 130 one or moreHyper Text Markup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTP request.Client system 130 may render a webpage based on the HTML files from theserver for presentation to the user. This disclosure contemplates anysuitable webpage files. As an example and not by way of limitation,webpages may render from HTML files, Extensible Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (XHTML) files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML) files,according to particular needs. Such pages may also execute scripts suchas, for example and without limitation, those written in JAVASCRIPT orJAVA, combinations of markup language and scripts such as AJAX(Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and the like. Herein, reference to awebpage encompasses one or more corresponding webpage files (which abrowser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa, whereappropriate.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Social-networking system 160 may generate, store, receive, andsend social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data,concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable datarelated to the online social network. Social-networking system 160 maybe accessed by the other components of network environment 100 eitherdirectly or via network 110. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more servers 162. Eachserver 162 may be a unitary server or a distributed server spanningmultiple computers or multiple datacenters. Servers 162 may be ofvarious types, such as, for example and without limitation, web server,news server, mail server, message server, advertising server, fileserver, application server, exchange server, database server, proxyserver, another server suitable for performing functions or processesdescribed herein, or any combination thereof. In particular embodiments,each server 162 may include hardware, software, or embedded logiccomponents or a combination of two or more such components for carryingout the appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by server162. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may includeone or more data stores 164. Data stores 164 may be used to storevarious types of information. In particular embodiments, the informationstored in data stores 164 may be organized according to specific datastructures. In particular embodiments, each data store 164 may be arelational, columnar, correlation, or other suitable database. Althoughthis disclosure describes or illustrates particular types of databases,this disclosure contemplates any suitable types of databases. Particularembodiments may provide interfaces that enable client system 130,social-networking system 160, or third-party system 170 to manage,retrieve, modify, add, or delete, the information stored in data store164.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may store one ormore social graphs in one or more data stores 164. In particularembodiments, a social graph may include multiple nodes—which may includemultiple user nodes (each corresponding to a particular user) ormultiple concept nodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—andmultiple edges connecting the nodes. Social-networking system 160 mayprovide users of the online social network the ability to communicateand interact with other users. In particular embodiments, users may jointhe online social network via social-networking system 160 and then addconnections (i.e., relationships) to a number of other users ofsocial-networking system 160 whom they want to be connected to. Herein,the term “friend” may refer to any other user of social-networkingsystem 160 with whom a user has formed a connection, association, orrelationship via social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provideusers with the ability to take actions on various types of items orobjects, supported by social-networking system 160. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the items and objects may include groups orsocial networks to which users of social-networking system 160 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use, transactions that allowusers to buy or sell items via the service, interactions withadvertisements that a user may perform, or other suitable items orobjects. A user may interact with anything that is capable of beingrepresented in social-networking system 160 or by an external system ofthird-party system 170, which is separate from social-networking system160 and coupled to social-networking system 160 via a network 110.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be capableof linking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may enable users to interactwith each other as well as receive content from third-party systems 170or other entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, third-party system 170 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 170 may beoperated by a different entity from an entity operatingsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, however,social-networking system 160 and third-party systems 170 may operate inconjunction with each other to provide social-networking services tousers of social-networking system 160 or third-party systems 170. Inthis sense, social-networking system 160 may provide a platform, orbackbone, which other systems, such as third-party systems 170, may useto provide social-networking services and functionality to users acrossthe Internet.

In particular embodiments, third-party system 170 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to client system 130. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith social-networking system 160. User-generated content may includeanything a user can add, upload, send, or “post” to social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, a usercommunicates posts to social-networking system 160 from client system130. Posts may include data such as status updates or other textualdata, location information, photos, videos, links, music or othersimilar data or media. Content may also be added to social-networkingsystem 160 by a third-party through a “communication channel,” such as anewsfeed or stream.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may include avariety of servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and datastores. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayinclude one or more of the following: a web server, action logger,API-request server, relevance-and-ranking engine, content-objectclassifier, notification controller, action log,third-party-content-object-exposure log, inference module,authorization/privacy server, search module, ad-targeting module,user-interface module, user-profile store, connection store, third-partycontent store, or location store. Social-networking system 160 may alsoinclude suitable components such as network interfaces, securitymechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitable components,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more user-profile storesfor storing user profiles. A user profile may include, for example,biographic information, demographic information, behavioral information,social information, or other types of descriptive information, such aswork experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences, interests,affinities, or location. Interest information may include interestsrelated to one or more categories. Categories may be general orspecific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user “likes”an article about a brand of shoes the category may be the brand, or thegeneral category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connection store may beused for storing connection information about users. The connectioninformation may indicate users who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or are inany way related or share common attributes. The connection informationmay also include user-defined connections between different users andcontent (both internal and external). A web server may be used forlinking social-networking system 160 to one or more client systems 130or one or more third-party system 170 via network 110. The web servermay include a mail server or other messaging functionality for receivingand routing messages between social-networking system 160 and one ormore client systems 130. An API-request server may allow third-partysystem 170 to access information from social-networking system 160 bycalling one or more APIs. An action logger may be used to receivecommunications from a web server about a user's actions on or offsocial-networking system 160. In conjunction with the action log, athird-party-content-object log may be maintained of user exposures tothird-party-content objects. A notification controller may provideinformation regarding content objects to client system 130. Informationmay be pushed to client system 130 as notifications, or information maybe pulled from client system 130 responsive to a request received fromclient system 130. Authorization servers may be used to enforce one ormore privacy settings of the users of social-networking system 160. Aprivacy setting of a user determines how particular informationassociated with a user can be shared. The authorization server may allowusers to opt in or opt out of having their actions logged bysocial-networking system 160 or shared with other systems (e.g.,third-party system 170), such as, for example, by setting appropriateprivacy settings. Third-party-content-object stores may be used to storecontent objects received from third parties, such as third-party system170. Location stores may be used for storing location informationreceived from client systems 130 associated with users.Advertisement-pricing modules may combine social information, thecurrent time, location information, or other suitable information toprovide relevant advertisements, in the form of notifications, to auser.

Social Graphs

FIG. 2 illustrates example social graph 200. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store one or more social graphs 200 inone or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph 200 mayinclude multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes 202 ormultiple concept nodes 204—and multiple edges 206 connecting the nodes.Example social graph 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown, for didacticpurposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation. In particularembodiments, social-networking system 160, client system 130, orthird-party system 170 may access social graph 200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges ofsocial graph 200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to a user ofsocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g.,an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g.,of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or oversocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, when a userregisters for an account with social-networking system 160,social-networking system 160 may create a user node 202 corresponding tothe user, and store the user node 202 in one or more data stores. Usersand user nodes 202 described herein may, where appropriate, refer toregistered users and user nodes 202 associated with registered users. Inaddition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered withsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, a user node 202may be associated with information provided by a user or informationgathered by various systems, including social-networking system 160. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide his or hername, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, maritalstatus, family status, employment, education background, preferences,interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments,a user node 202 may be associated with one or more data objectscorresponding to information associated with a user. In particularembodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with social-networking system 160 or a third-partywebsite associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as,for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within social-networking system 160 or on an external server,such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (suchas, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea,photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory;another suitable concept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node204 may be associated with information of a concept provided by a useror information gathered by various systems, including social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 204 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 200 may represent orbe represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profilepage”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible tosocial-networking system 160. Profile pages may also be hosted onthird-party websites associated with a third-party server 170. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a profile page corresponding to aparticular external webpage may be the particular external webpage andthe profile page may correspond to a particular concept node 204.Profile pages may be viewable by all or a selected subset of otherusers. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user node 202 mayhave a corresponding user-profile page in which the corresponding usermay add content, make declarations, or otherwise express himself orherself. As another example and not by way of limitation, a concept node204 may have a corresponding concept-profile page in which one or moreusers may add content, make declarations, or express themselves,particularly in relation to the concept corresponding to concept node204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by third-party system 170. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object(which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHPcodes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon suchas “like,” “check in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “eat”), causing client system 130to send to social-networking system 160 a message indicating the user'saction. In response to the message, social-networking system 160 maycreate an edge (e.g., an “eat” edge) between a user node 202corresponding to the user and a concept node 204 corresponding to thethird-party webpage or resource and store edge 206 in one or more datastores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 206. An edge 206 connectinga pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes.In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may include or represent one ormore data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationshipbetween a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the firstuser. In response to this indication, social-networking system 160 maysend a “friend request” to the second user. If the second user confirmsthe “friend request,” social-networking system 160 may create an edge206 connecting the first user's user node 202 to the second user's usernode 202 in social graph 200 and store edge 206 as social-graphinformation in one or more of data stores 24. In the example of FIG. 2 ,social graph 200 includes an edge 206 indicating a friend relationbetween user nodes 202 of user “A” and user “B” and an edge indicating afriend relation between user nodes 202 of user “C” and user “B.”Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 206with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 202, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent a friendship, family relationship,business or employment relationship, fan relationship, followerrelationship, visitor relationship, subscriber relationship,superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocal relationship,non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type of relationship, ortwo or more such relationships. Moreover, although this disclosuregenerally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosure alsodescribes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, references tousers or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer to thenodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected in socialgraph 200 by one or more edges 206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 206 between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 may represent a particular action or activity performedby a user associated with user node 202 toward a concept associated witha concept node 204. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 2 , a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,”“listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of whichmay correspond to a edge type or subtype. A concept-profile pagecorresponding to a concept node 204 may include, for example, aselectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check in”icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a userclicks these icons, social-networking system 160 may create a “favorite”edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user's action correspondingto a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song (“Song_Name”) using aparticular application (an online music application). In this case,social-networking system 160 may create a “listened” edge 206 and a“used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 2 ) between user nodes 202corresponding to the user and concept nodes 204 corresponding to thesong and application to indicate that the user listened to the song andused the application. Moreover, social-networking system 160 may createa “played” edge 206 (as illustrated in FIG. 2 ) between concept nodes204 corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that theparticular song was played by the particular application. In this case,“played” edge 206 corresponds to an action performed by an externalapplication (“online music app”) on an external audio file (the song“Song_Name”). Although this disclosure describes particular edges 206with particular attributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes204, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with anysuitable attributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204.Moreover, although this disclosure describes edges between a user node202 and a concept node 204 representing a single relationship, thisdisclosure contemplates edges between a user node 202 and a concept node204 representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by wayof limitation, an edge 206 may represent both that a user likes and hasused at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 206 mayrepresent each type of relationship (or multiples of a singlerelationship) between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 (asillustrated in FIG. 2 between user node 202 for user “E” and conceptnode 204 for “online music app”).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may create anedge 206 between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 in social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client system 130) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client system 130 to send to social-networking system 160 amessage indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, social-networkingsystem 160 may create an edge 206 between user node 202 associated withthe user and concept node 204, as illustrated by “like” edge 206 betweenthe user and concept node 204. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store an edge 206 in one or more datastores. In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may be automaticallyformed by social-networking system 160 in response to a particular useraction. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a first useruploads a picture, watches a movie, or listens to a song, an edge 206may be formed between user node 202 corresponding to the first user andconcept nodes 204 corresponding to those concepts. Although thisdisclosure describes forming particular edges 206 in particular manners,this disclosure contemplates forming any suitable edges 206 in anysuitable manner.

Object-Classifier Algorithms

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may determine anobject-classifier algorithm through an iterative classifier trainingprocess. In particular embodiments, an object-classifier algorithm maybe used to determine a classification for an object. In particularembodiments, a classification for an object may be referred to as anobject-classification. Objects may include, for example, posts, newsstories, headlines, instant messages, comments, chat room conversations,profile pages, web pages, emails, advertisements, pictures, videos,music, other suitable objects associated with the online social network,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,object-classifications may include emotions or feelings (including,e.g., particular emotions or feelings such as proud, happy, sad, orfeeling tired or hungry), questions or searches (e.g., a request for arecommendation for a doctor), locations, events, news, trends, sports,food, music, movies, pets, or any other suitable object-classifications.As an example and not by way of limitation, a post with the phrase “I'mstarving” may be classified with a “feeling hungry”object-classification (indicating, e.g., that the poster feels hungry).In particular embodiments, an object-classifier algorithm may bereferred to as an object-classifier. In particular embodiments, aparticular object-classifier algorithm may be associated with aparticular object-classification. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an object-classifier algorithm that classifies objectsassociated with a user searching for a doctor may be associated with a“doctor search” object-classification. As another example and not by wayof limitation, an object-classifier algorithm that classifies objectsassociated with a user feeling proud may be associated with a “feelingproud” object-classification. In particular embodiments, an object maybe classified, using one or more object-classifiers, as having one ormore particular object-classifications. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a message that includes the phrase “I'm starving—let's goget a burrito” may be classified as having a “feeling hungry”object-classification as well as a “food” object-classification. Asanother example and not by way of limitation, a post from a user withthe phrase “Yay! So happy they won the big game!” may be classified ashaving a “feeling happy” object-classification as well as a “baseball”object-classification. In particular embodiments, an object may beclassified as having multiple object-classifications, where two or moreof the object-classifications may have a hierarchical or nestedrelationship with one another. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a post that includes the phrase “Going to a foreign filmfestival this weekend. Can't wait to see the restored version of JohnDirector's “Foreign_Movie” may be classified with a “film”classification. Additionally, the post may be classified with otherobject-classifications, such as for example “foreign film,” “director:John Director,” and “movie: Foreign_Movie” classifications, and theseother classifications may have a hierarchical relationship with theparent “film” classification (e.g., the “foreign film” classificationmay be a child classification under the “film” classification, and the“director: John Director” and “movie: Foreign_Movie” classifications mayin turn be child classifications under the “foreign film”classification). Although this disclosure describes particularobject-classifications determined by particular object-classifieralgorithms, this disclosure contemplates any suitableobject-classifications determined by any suitable object-classifieralgorithms.

In particular embodiments, there may be multiple object-classifications,and social-networking system 160 may determine an object-classifier foreach object-classification. In particular embodiments, eachobject-classifier may be associated with a particularobject-classification (and vice versa), and an object-classifier mayanalyze information associated with an object to determine whether thatobject has the particular object-classification. In particularembodiments, an object-classifier may produce a Boolean output (e.g.,true or false; yes or no) to indicate whether or not a particular objecthas a particular object-classification. In other particular embodiments,an object-classifier may produce a score or a probability to indicatethe probability that a particular object has a particularobject-classification. As an example and not by way of limitation, anobject-classifier may indicate that a particular object has an 89%probability of being associated with a particular object-classification.In particular embodiments, when classifying a particular object, anobject-classifier may not consider the particular object but may insteadconsider other objects or metadata associated with the object. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a classifier for classifying apost may not consider the text of the post itself but may considercomments and other objects or metadata associated with the post.

In particular embodiments, a classifier training process may refer to aprocess where an object-classifier algorithm is trained to identify,classify, score, or rank objects according to their association with aparticular object-classification. In particular embodiments, a set ofobjects having a particular, known object-classification may be used totrain a classifier on what constitutes the object-classification. Inparticular embodiments, when training an object-classifier with a set ofobjects having a known object-classification, the training process maynot be based on the objects but may instead be based on other objects ormetadata associated with the objects. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a training process may consider comments associated with theobjects rather than the text of the objects (e.g., comments on a postrather than the post itself). In particular embodiments, a classifiertraining process may be repeated one or more times, and theobject-classifier may become more refined or more accurate after eachiteration. Once a desired level of accuracy has been achieved, theiterative training process may be stopped, the object-classifieralgorithm may be finalized, and the final version of theobject-classifier algorithm may be used to determine whether an objecthas the particular object-classification.

Previous techniques related to determining an object-classifieralgorithm may focus on object-classifiers that look primarily at thecontent of an object in order to classify the object (e.g., looking forkeywords in the text of a post). However, these previous techniques cansometimes lead to misclassification of objects. As an example, a postcontaining text where the user is being sarcastic or when keywords areused in an unexpected context may lead to the post being misclassifiedby an object-classifier that primarily looks at the post. Particularembodiments of this disclosure address some of the shortcomings ofprevious techniques by training an object-classifier that looks beyondthe content of a post to examine metadata or other objects associatedwith the object being classified. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an object-classifier may be trained to classify a post basedat least in part on comments associated with the post. Anobject-classifier trained to consider other objects or metadataassociated with an object may result in an improved or more accurateobject-classifier.

Accessing a Set of Objects

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may access aninitial set (also referred to herein as a “first set”) of objectsassociated with an online social network (e.g., objects hosted bysocial-networking system 160, or objects hosted by a third-party systemthat are associated with the online social network). In particularembodiments, the initial set of objects may be used to generate atraining set of objects for training an object-classifier algorithm. Inparticular embodiments, accessing an initial set of objects may includeretrieving objects from one or more data stores 164 of social-networkingsystem 160. Each object in the initial set of objects may have anobject-type that may include, for example, photos, posts, pages,applications, events, locations, user groups, other suitableobject-types, or any suitable combination thereof. In particularembodiments, an object may have metadata or other objects associatedwith it. In particular embodiments, each object in the initial set ofobjects may be associated with one or more comments. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the objects in the initial set of objects maybe posts on the online social network, and each post may have one ormore comments associated with it. As another example and not by way oflimitation, the objects in the initial set of objects may include postson a third-party website, and each post may have one or more associatedcomments, where the comment functionality is implemented using a socialplug-in that is associated with the online social network. Although thisdisclosure describes particular objects being associated with the onlinesocial network, this disclosure contemplates any suitable objects beingassociated with the online social network.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may access asocial graph that includes multiple nodes and multiple edges connectingthe nodes, each node corresponding to an object associated with theonline social network. In particular embodiments, for each object in theinitial set of objects, the object may be a post by a first user of theonline social network corresponding to a first node of the social graph.In particular embodiments, each comment associated with the object maybe a comment on the post by a second user of the online social network,where each second user corresponds to a second node, and each secondnode is within a single degree of separation from the first node in thesocial graph. In particular embodiments, comments associated with aparticular object may include one or more comments on the object by thefirst user (e.g., the user who generated or posted the particularobject) as well as one or more comments on the object by a second user.As an example and not by way of limitation, a first user may post aquestion, such as for example, “Can anyone recommend a plumber? My sinkis clogged.” In response to the first user's post, one or more secondusers may add comments that include recommendations for plumbers. Also,the first user may add a comment to give the second users an update onthe first user's original post or to provide additional information. Asan example and not by way of limitation, the first user may write acomment thanking the second users for their comments (e.g., “Thanks forall the recommendations! I located a plumber.”) Although this disclosuredescribes particular objects with particular associated comments, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable objects with any suitableassociated comments.

In particular embodiments, the objects in the initial set of objects (aswell as the objects in the test set and revised initial set describedbelow) may include objects that are randomly selected from objectsassociated with the online social network. In particular embodiments,the objects in the initial set of objects (as well as the objects in thetest set and revised initial set described below) may include greaterthan one-hundred thousand objects, greater than one million objects,greater than ten million objects, greater than one-hundred millionobjects, or greater than any suitable number of objects. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may accessthe initial set of objects by randomly selecting one million posts fromposts associated with the online social network. Although thisdisclosure describes accessing particular numbers and types of objectsin a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates accessing anysuitable numbers and types of objects in any suitable manner.

Filtering Objects

In particular embodiments, after accessing an initial set of objects,social-networking system 160 may generate a filtered set (also referredto herein as a “second set”) of objects from the initial set of objectsby applying a filtering criteria to the initial set of objects. Inparticular embodiments, filtering criteria applied to the initial set ofobjects may be relatively broad or may be configured to add objects tothe filtered set that fulfill one or more general criteria and removefrom consideration objects that do not meet one or more of the generalcriteria. As an example and not by way of limitation, a set of filteringcriteria applied to an object may include one or more of the following:the object is a post; the object has one or more associated comments;the object was posted within the past 30 days; or the object is writtenin English. In particular embodiments, an object-classifier may beassociated with a user posting a request for information or services. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may post a requestasking for a recommendation for a doctor, plumber, electrician, carmechanic, restaurant, movie, or any other suitable type of service,place, or event. A set of filtering criteria directed to finding postswhere a user posted a question to request information or services mayinclude one or more of the following: the object includes a questionmark (“?”); the object has a comment from the original poster thatincludes “thanks,” “thank,” or “thank you”; the object is a post; theobject has one or more associated comments; the object was posted withinthe past 30 days; or the object is written in English. In particularembodiments, a filtering process may include 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 20, 50, orany suitable number of filtering criteria.

In particular embodiments, applying a filtering criteria to an initialset of objects may include comparing metadata associated with eachobject in the initial set of objects to a set of filtering criteria. Inparticular embodiments, generating the filtered set of objects mayinclude adding objects from the initial set of objects to the filteredset based on the comparison of the metadata to the filtering criteria.In particular embodiments, metadata associated with an object mayinclude one or more of: social-graph information associated with theobject, other objects associated with the object, a language associatedwith the object, a time or date associated with the object, or anycombination thereof. As an example and not by way of limitation, afiltering criteria may be associated with a particular language (e.g., afiltering criteria may require that the object was written in English).As another example and not by way of limitation, a filtering criteriamay be associated with a time or date (e.g., the object was postedwithin the past 30 days). In particular embodiments, social-graphinformation may include an affinity coefficient between first and secondusers of the online social network, the first user being associated withan object in the initial set of objects. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a filtering criteria may include a requirement that anaffinity coefficient between first and second users be greater than athreshold value. In particular embodiments, other objects associatedwith the object may include objects (as well as social-graph data andother metadata associated with these objects) associated with aparticular type of place (e.g., a movie theater, restaurant, landmark,or city), a particular type of entity (e.g., a person, business, group,sports team, or celebrity), a particular type of resource (e.g., anaudio file, video file, digital photo, text file, structured document,sticker, post/comment on the online social network, or application,including references to social-graph entities associated with theresource, such as tags, links, check-ins, etc., or other types ofstructured data associated with the reference), a particular type ofreal or intellectual property (e.g., a sculpture, painting, movie, game,song, idea, photograph, or written work), other suitable contentobjects, or any combination thereof. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a filtering criteria may include a requirement that anobject include or be associated with a particular tag or sticker. Inparticular embodiments, a sticker may refer to an illustration or ananimation, and a user may include a sticker in an object (e.g., a postor a message) to indicate how they are feeling (e.g., a sticker mayindicate that the user is feeling happy, sad, proud, tired, or hungry).In particular embodiments, metadata associated with a particular objectmay exclude the text or words of the object but may include punctuationmarks (e.g., question mark or exclamation mark) or symbols included inan object. As an example and not by way of limitation, an object that isa post may include a question mark, and the filtering criteria mayinclude a requirement that the object include a question mark as anindication that the poster may be asking a question or requestinginformation. In particular embodiments, metadata associated with aparticular object may include any suitable set of text associated withthe object, such as for example text in a comment. In particularembodiments, metadata associated with a particular object may includeany suitable type of structured data or non-textual data associated withthe object, such as for example tags, minutiae (e.g., small dataelements), social-graph data (likes, check-ins, etc.), photos, or links.Although this disclosure describes particular filtering processes thatinclude particular types and numbers of filtering criteria, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable filtering processes that includeany suitable types and numbers of filtering criteria.

In particular embodiments, in order for an object to be added to thefiltered set of objects, a filtering process may require that all of thefiltering criteria be met; that some number or percentage of filteringcriteria be met; or that some particular filtering criteria be met whilesome number or percentage of other filtering criteria is also met. As anexample and not by way of limitation, for a filtering process thatincludes six filtering criteria, an object from the initial set ofobjects may be added to the filtered set of objects if it fulfills allsix of the specified criteria. As another example and not by way oflimitation, a filtering process may require that at least five out ofsix filtering criteria be met or at least 83% of the filtering criteriabe met. As another example and not by way of limitation, a filteringprocess may require that two particular filtering criteria be met (e.g.,the object must include a question mark, and the object must have one ormore associated comments) and at least 75% of the remaining filteringcriteria be met. In particular embodiments, the filtered set of objectsmay include any suitable percentage of the objects from the initial set(e.g., the filtered set may include approximately 50%, 30%, 20%, 10%,5%, or 1% of the objects from the initial set). As an example and not byway of limitation, the initial set of objects may include approximatelyten million objects, and after filtering, the filtered set of objectsmay include approximately one million objects.

Scoring Objects

In particular embodiments, after generating a filtered set of objectsfrom an initial set of objects, social-networking system 160 may scoreeach object in the filtered set of objects based on comments associatedwith each object. As an example and not by way of limitation, an objectscore for each object in the filtered set may be generated to determinehow strongly the object or the object's comments are associated orcorrelated with a particular object-classification. A higher objectscore may indicate a stronger association of an object with a particularobject-classification. In particular embodiments, scoring each object inthe filtered set of objects may include determining, for each object inthe filtered set of objects, a score for each comment associated withthe object. In particular embodiments, scoring each object in thefiltered set of objects may include combining, for each object in thefiltered set of objects, the scores for the comments to produce anobject score. In particular embodiments, an object score may bedetermined as an average of the scores for the comments associated withthe object. As an example and not by way of limitation, an object havingfour comments with scores of 4, 6, 0, and 10, respectively, may have anobject score of (4+6+0+10)/4=5. Although this disclosure describesscoring objects based on comments in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates scoring objects based on comments in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, scoring each object in the filtered set ofobjects may include determining a score for each comment associated withthe object by comparing the comment to a set of regular expressionsassociated or correlated with a particular object-classification. Inparticular embodiments, a regular expression may refer to a sequence ofcharacters that form a search pattern for use in finding matchingstrings within a comment. As an example and not by way of limitation,the regular expression “barbe[cq]ue” may be used to search for both“barbecue” and “barbeque” in a comment. In particular embodiments, a setof regular expressions used to score an object may be referred to as aseed set of expressions and may act as a seed input to a routine fordetermining an object-classifier. In particular embodiments, as aninitial step for determining an object-classifier for a particularobject-classification, a seed set of expressions for theobject-classification may, at least in part, be determined manually by aperson. As an example and not by way of limitation, for anobject-classification associated with car repair, a person may determinethat the seed set of expressions should include the terms “car repair,”“car mechanic,” “auto repair,” and “automobile mechanic.” In particularembodiments, a seed set of expressions may include 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20,50, 100, or any suitable number of expressions. In particularembodiments, a comment may be analyzed to find matching seed expressionsin the comment, and the comment's score may be proportional to thenumber of matching expressions found in the comment. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a seed set of expressions associated with auser searching for a doctor may include one or more of the following:“doctor,” “pediatrician,” “dr,” “physician,” “recommend,” “love,” aphone number, other suitable expressions, or any combination thereof.Such an example seed set of expressions may result in a relatively highscore for a comment that includes the phrase: “I love my doctor and canrecommend her highly. Here's her phone number: 650-555-1234.” As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, a seed set of expressionsassociated with a user feeling proud may include one or more of thefollowing: “congratulations,” “congrats,” “happy for you,” or “greatnews.” Such an example seed set of expressions may result in arelatively high score for a comment that includes the phrase: “Congrats!I'm so happy for you. That's really great news.” Although thisdisclosure describes particular seed sets of expressions that includeparticular numbers and types of expressions, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable seed sets of expressions that include anysuitable numbers and types of expressions.

In particular embodiments, a comment's score may be incremented by aparticular amount (e.g., incremented by 1) for each matching seedexpression in the comment. As an example and not by way of limitation, acomment that includes matches for six seed expressions may have acomment score of six. In other particular embodiments, a comment's scoremay be a weighted combination or average of the number of matches, whereparticular weighting factors are applied to particular seed expressionsbased on their relative degree of importance. As an example and not byway of limitation, for a user searching for a doctor, the seedexpressions “doctor,” “pediatrician,” “dr,” or “physician” may beassigned a higher weighting factor than the seed expressions “recommend”or “love.” In particular embodiments, while expressions in a seed setmay have a positive correlation with a particular object-classification,there may be other expressions that have a negative correlation with theobject-classification. As an example and not by way of limitation,although the terms “rug doctor,” “PC doctor,” or “phone doctor” eachinclude the word “doctor,” these terms may be negatively correlated witha user searching for a doctor since they may be associated with a userlooking for a rug cleaner, computer repair, or iPhone repair,respectively. In particular embodiments, a score for a comment may bebased on comparing the comment with a positively correlated seed set ofexpressions as well as with a set of expressions having a negativecorrelation with a particular object-classification. As an example andnot by way of limitation, each instance of a seed expression found in acomment may increase the comment's score by 1, while each instance of anegatively-correlated expression may decrease the comment's score by 1.Although this disclosure describes scoring comments in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates scoring comments in any suitablemanner.

Generating a Training Set of Objects

In particular embodiments, after scoring objects in a filtered set ofobjects, social-networking system 160 may generate a training set ofobjects from the filtered set of objects by selecting each object fromthe filtered set having a score greater than a threshold score. As anexample and not by way of limitation, objects in the filtered set mayhave scores ranging from 0 to 100, and the threshold score may be 85 sothat any object with a score greater than 85 is added to the trainingset. In particular embodiments, each object in the training set may beassociated with a particular object-classification. As an example andnot by way of limitation, objects in a training set based on a seed setof expressions associated with a “feeling proud” object-classificationmay be classified as having a “feeling proud” object-classification. Inparticular embodiments, a threshold score may be greater than the scoresfor 60%, 75%, 90%, 95%, 99%, or any suitable percentage of the objectsin the filtered set of objects. As an example and not by way oflimitation, if a filtered set of objects includes 1,000,000 objects andthe threshold score is greater than the scores for 90% of the objects inthe filtered set, then the training set will include approximately100,000 objects from the filtered set having the highest object scores.In particular embodiments, a training set of objects may include anysuitable number of objects (e.g., 1,000 objects, 10,000 objects, 100,000objects, or 1,000,000 objects). Although this disclosure describesgenerating a training set in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates generating a training set in any suitable manner.

Iterative Classifier Training

In particular embodiments, after generating a training set of objectswhere each object in the training set has a particularobject-classification, social-networking system 160 may determine anobject-classifier algorithm for the particular object-classification. Inparticular embodiments, the object-classifier algorithm may bedetermined through an iterative training process performed one or moretimes, where the training set of objects may be used as an initialtraining set for the first iteration of the iterative training process.In particular embodiments, after each iteration of the iterativetraining process, the object-classifier algorithm may be examined todetermine whether a desired level of precision, recall, or accuracy hasbeen achieved. If so, the iterative training process may be halted, andthe object-classifier algorithm is complete. Otherwise, anotheriteration of the iterative training process may be performed. Inparticular embodiments, the iterative training process may be asupervised machine learning process that requires some manual input ordetermination to decide when a sufficiently accurate object-classifierhas been achieved. In particular embodiments, one, two, three, four, orany suitable number of iterations of an iterative training process maybe performed to determine an object-classifier algorithm that has anacceptable level of precision, recall, or accuracy. As an example andnot by way of limitation, two iterations of an iterative trainingprocess may be sufficient to generate an object-classifier algorithmwith an acceptable level of accuracy. In particular embodiments, eachiteration of an iterative training process may include a series ofsteps, each of which is described below. Although this disclosuredescribes a particular iterative training process for determiningparticular object-classifiers, this disclosure contemplates any suitableiterative training process for determining any suitableobject-classifiers.

Initial Object-Classifier Algorithm

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may train aninitial object-classifier algorithm based on comments associated withobjects in a training set of objects. In particular embodiments,training an initial object-classifier algorithm may include analyzingthe comments associated with the training set of objects to determine aset of features associated with a particular object-classification. Oneor more of the features may be incorporated into the initialobject-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, features mayinclude particular words, terms, or phrases (e.g., regular expressions)in comments where the features are associated with a particularobject-classification. As an example and not by way of limitation,comments for a training set of objects having a “cycling”object-classification may be analyzed to determine a set of featuresthat may include one or more of the following terms: bicycle, cycling,road bike, mountain bike, derailleur, helmet, or any other suitable termassociated with cycling. In particular embodiments, analysis of commentsassociated with objects in a training set may yield a set of featuresthat includes any suitable number of features (e.g., 100, 500, 1,000,10,000, 100,000, or any suitable number of features). In particularembodiments, training an initial object-classifier algorithm may bebased on a revised object-classifier algorithm (described below) trainedin a prior iteration of the iterative training process. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, a previous iteration of an iterativetraining process may determine a revised object-classifier algorithm,and this revised object-classifier algorithm may be used as a startingpoint for an initial object-classifier algorithm in a subsequentiteration of the training process.

In particular embodiments, features associated with comments may bedetermined at least in part by applying one or more of the followinganalyses to the comments for a training set of objects: term-frequencyanalysis, term-frequency-inverse-document-frequency (tf-idf) analysis,topic-extraction analysis, or sentiment analysis. Term-frequencyanalysis involves counting the number of occurrences of a term in acomment. In particular embodiments, the number of occurrences of a termmay be normalized to prevent a bias towards longer comments. A tf-idfapproach uses a statistical measure to evaluate how important a word orfeature is to a document in a collection of documents (e.g., howimportant a word is to a comment in a collection of comments associatedwith a training set of objects). In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may identify an anchor term in a comment.Accordingly, social-networking system 160 may use a topic-extractionmechanism or system to determine a corresponding feature by identifyingone or more nodes from social graph 200 that closely match the anchorterm. In particular embodiments, identifying features may be based atleast in part on a sentiment analysis of comments. More information ontopic extraction may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 9,779,385, filed 23 Jun.2011, which is incorporated by reference. Furthermore, more informationon sentiment analysis may be found in U.S. Patent Publication No.2015/0074020, filed 10 Sep. 2013, which is incorporated by reference.Although this disclosure describes determining features in particularmanners, this disclosure contemplates determining features in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, training an initial object-classifieralgorithm may include scoring each feature in the set of features. Inparticular embodiments, each feature may be scored based at least inpart on a frequency of occurrence of the feature in the commentsassociated with the objects in the training set. As an example and notby way of limitation, term-frequency analysis or tf-idf analysis may beused to determine a score for a feature, and a higher score may indicatea stronger correlation, relevance, or importance of a feature to aparticular object-classification. In particular embodiments, training aninitial object-classifier algorithm may include modifying the initialobject-classifier algorithm to associate at least in part a particularobject-classification with one or more of the features in the set offeatures having a score greater than a threshold feature score. Inparticular embodiments, modifying the initial object-classifieralgorithm may include adding top-scoring features to the algorithm sothat the algorithm may recognize those features as being associated witha particular object-classification. In particular embodiments, athreshold feature score may be greater than the scores for any suitablepercentage of the features (e.g., a threshold feature score may begreater than 80%, 90%, 95%, 99% of the feature scores). As an exampleand not by way of limitation, analysis of comments associated withobjects in a training set may yield a set of 10,000 features, and athreshold feature score may have a value that results in the top 200features being added to the initial object-classifier algorithm.Although this disclosure describes training an initial object-classifieralgorithm in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates trainingan initial object-classifier algorithm in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, after training an initial object-classifieralgorithm, social-networking system 160 may access a test set (alsoreferred to herein as a “third set”) of objects associated with theonline social network. In particular embodiments, the test set ofobjects may be accessed in a manner similar to the initial set ofobjects described previously. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the test set of objects may include 10 million objectsrandomly selected from one or more data stores 164 of social-networkingsystem 160. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayapply a filtering criteria to the test set of objects, and objects notmeeting particular filtering criteria may be removed from the test setof objects. In particular embodiments, the filtering criteria applied tothe test set of objects may be similar to the filtering criteria appliedto the initial set of objects or may be similar to but less restrictivethan the filtering criteria applied to the initial set of objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may classify,using the initial object-classifier algorithm, each object in the testset of objects based on an analysis of the comments associated with eachobject. In particular embodiments, classifying each object in the testset of objects may include comparing the comments associated with anobject in the test set to features associated with the initialobject-classifier algorithm to determine whether the object isclassified with a particular object-classification. In particularembodiments, an initial object-classifier algorithm may search for theoccurrence of features in the comments, and objects having comments withmore matches to the features are more likely to be classified as havingthe particular object-classification associated with the initialobject-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, after runningthe initial object-classifier algorithm, one or more of the objects inthe test set of objects may be classified with the object-classificationcorresponding to the algorithm. As an example and not by way oflimitation, from a test set of objects that includes 10 million objects,approximately 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000, or any suitable number of objectsmay be classified as having the particular object-classificationassociated with the initial object-classifier algorithm. In particularembodiments, objects classified as having the particularobject-classification may be examined to assess the accuracy of theinitial object-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, if theinitial object-classifier algorithm has achieved a sufficient level ofaccuracy, the iterative training process may be stopped, and the initialobject-classifier algorithm may become a final version of anobject-classifier algorithm. Although this disclosure describesclassifying objects in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesclassifying objects in any suitable manner.

Revised Object-Classifier Algorithm

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may train arevised object-classifier algorithm. The training process may be basedat least in part on comments associated with objects in the test set ofobjects having the object-classification associated with the initialobject-classifier algorithm. Those comments are used as inputs fortraining a revised object-classifier algorithm. In particularembodiments, similar to the process for training the initialobject-classifier algorithm discussed above, training a revisedobject-classifier algorithm may include analyzing the commentsassociated with the objects in the test set having the particularobject-classification to determine a set of revised features associatedwith the particular object-classification. In particular embodiments, arevised object-classifier algorithm may be based on the initialobject-classifier algorithm, and the revised object-classifier algorithmmay be a refined or improved version of the initial object-classifieralgorithm. Additionally, in particular embodiments, trainingobject-classifier algorithms in this and subsequent iterations may be aprocess of refining or improving an object-classifier algorithm until adesired level of accuracy is achieved. In particular embodiments,training the revised object-classifier algorithm may include adding oneor more of the revised features to the features associated with theinitial object-classifier algorithm. Training the revisedobject-classifier algorithm may also include removing one or morefeatures from the initial object-classifier algorithm.

In particular embodiments, training a revised object-classifieralgorithm may include scoring each revised feature in the set of revisedfeatures. Similar to the feature scoring process discussed above, inparticular embodiments, each revised feature may be scored based atleast in part on a frequency of occurrence of the feature in thecomments associated with the objects in the test set of objects havingthe particular object-classification. In particular embodiments,training a revised object-classifier algorithm may include modifying therevised object-classifier algorithm or the initial object-classifieralgorithm to associate at least in part a particularobject-classification with one or more of the features in the set ofrevised features having a score greater than a threshold feature score.As discussed above, modifying an object-classifier algorithm may includeadding top-scoring features to the algorithm so that the algorithm mayrecognize those features as being associated with a particularobject-classification. Although this disclosure describes training arevised object-classifier algorithm in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates training a revised object-classifier algorithmin any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, after training a revised object-classifieralgorithm, social-networking system 160 may access a new filtered set(also referred to herein as a “fourth set”) of objects associated withthe online social network. In particular embodiments, the new filteredset of objects may be generated by applying a filtering criteria to arevised initial set (also referred to herein as a “fifth set”) ofobjects associated with the online social network. In particularembodiments, the revised initial set of objects may be accessed in amanner similar to the initial and test sets of objects describedpreviously. As an example and not by way of limitation, the revisedinitial set of objects may include 50 million objects randomly selectedfrom one or more data stores 164 of social-networking system 160. Inparticular embodiments, the filtering criteria applied to the revisedinitial set of objects to generate the new filtered set of objects maybe similar to the filtering criteria applied to the initial set ofobjects or may be similar to but less restrictive than the filteringcriteria applied to the initial set of objects. As an example and not byway of limitation, a set of filtering criteria applied to objects in therevised initial set of objects may include one or more of the following:the object is a post; the object has one or more associated comments;the object was posted within the past 30 days; or the object is writtenin English.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may classify,using the revised object-classifier algorithm, each object in the newfiltered set of objects based on an analysis of the comments associatedwith each object. In particular embodiments, classifying each object inthe new filtered set of objects may include comparing the commentsassociated with an object in the new filtered set to features associatedwith the revised object-classifier algorithm to determine whether theobject is classified with a particular object-classification. Objectshaving comments with more matches to the features are more likely to beclassified as having the particular object-classification associatedwith the revised object-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments,after running the revised object-classifier algorithm, one or more ofthe objects in the new filtered set of objects may be classified withthe object-classification corresponding to the algorithm. In particularembodiments, objects classified as having the particularobject-classification may be examined to assess the accuracy of therevised object-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, if therevised object-classifier algorithm has achieved a sufficient level ofaccuracy, the iterative training process may be stopped, and the revisedobject-classifier algorithm may become a final version of anobject-classifier algorithm. Although this disclosure describesclassifying objects in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesclassifying objects in any suitable manner.

Training Set for a Subsequent Iteration

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generate anew training set (also referred to herein as a “sixth set”) of objectsfrom the new filtered set of objects by selecting each object from thenew filtered set of objects having a score greater than a secondthreshold score. In particular embodiments, a second threshold score maybe greater than the scores for 60%, 75%, 90%, 95%, 99%, or any suitablepercentage of the objects in the new filtered set of objects. Inparticular embodiments, for each object classified by anobject-classifier, the object-classifier may produce a score or aprobability that the object has a particular object-classification. Inparticular embodiments, the score for a particular object from the newfiltered set of objects may be based on the number of occurrences, inthe object's associated comments, of features associated with therevised object-classifier algorithm, and the score may be proportionalto the number of matches. In particular embodiments, a score for anobject from the new filtered set may indicate a probability that theobject has the object-classification associated with the revisedobject-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments, the new trainingset of objects may be used as a training set in a next iteration of theiterative training process.

FIG. 3 illustrates example method 300 for determining anobject-classifier through iterative classifier training. The method maybegin at step 310, where social-networking system 160 may access aninitial set of objects (also referred to herein as a “first set”) ofobjects associated with an online social network. In particularembodiments, each object in the initial set of objects may be associatedwith one or more comments. As an example and not by way of limitation,each object in the initial set of objects may be a post by a first userof the online social network, and one or more comments associated withthe object may be comments on the post by a second user of the onlinesocial network. At step 320, social-networking system 160 may generate afiltered set (also referred to herein as a “second set”) of objects fromthe initial set of objects by applying a first filtering criteria to theinitial set of objects. At step 330, social-networking system 160 mayscore each object in the filtered set of objects based on the commentsassociated with each object. At step 340, social-networking system 160may generate a training set of objects from the filtered set of objectsby selecting each object from the filtered set of objects having a scoregreater than a first threshold score. In particular embodiments, eachobject in the training set may be associated with a firstobject-classification. At step 350, social-networking system 160 maydetermine an object-classifier algorithm for the firstobject-classification, the object-classifier algorithm being determinedthrough an iterative training process. In particular embodiments, eachiteration of the iterative training process may include one or more ofsteps 352-364 as illustrated in FIG. 3 and as described below. Inparticular embodiments, the iterative training process may be performedone or more times, at which point the method may end. At step 352,social-networking system 160 may train an initial object-classifieralgorithm. In particular embodiments, training the initialobject-classifier algorithm may be based on the comments associated withthe objects in the training set of objects. At step 354,social-networking system 160 may access a test set (also referred toherein as a “third set”) of objects associated with the online socialnetwork. At step 356, social-networking system 160 may classify, usingthe initial object-classifier algorithm, each object in the test set ofobjects. In particular embodiments, classifying each object in the testset of objects may be based on an analysis of the comments associatedwith each object. In particular embodiments, one or more of the objectsin the test set of objects may be classified with the firstobject-classification. At step 358, social-networking system 160 maytrain a revised object-classifier algorithm. In particular embodiments,training the revised object-classifier algorithm may be based on thecomments associated with the objects in the test set of objects havingthe first object-classification. At step 360, social-networking system160 may access a new filtered set (also referred to herein as a “fourthset”) of objects associated with the online social network. Inparticular embodiments, the new filtered set of objects may be generatedby applying a second filtering criteria to a revised initial set (alsoreferred to herein as a “fifth set”) of objects associated with theonline social network. At step 362, social-networking system 160 mayclassify, using the revised object-classifier algorithm, each object inthe new filtered set of objects. In particular embodiments, classifyingeach object in the new filtered set of objects may be based on ananalysis of the comments associated with each object. In particularembodiments, one or more objects in the new filtered set of objects maybe classified with the first object-classification. At step 364,social-networking system 160 may generate a new training set (alsoreferred to herein as a “sixth set”) of objects from the new filteredset of objects by selecting each object from the new filtered set ofobjects having a score greater than a second threshold score. Inparticular embodiments, each object in the new training set of objectsmay be associated with the first object-classification. In particularembodiments, the new training set of objects may be used as the trainingset in a next iteration of the iterative training process. Particularembodiments may repeat one or more steps of method 300 of FIG. 3 , whereappropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular steps of the method of FIG. 3 as occurring in a particularorder, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of the method ofFIG. 3 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates an example method for determiningan object-classifier through iterative classifier training, includingthe particular steps of the method of FIG. 3 , this disclosurecontemplates any suitable method for determining an object-classifierthrough iterative classifier training including any suitable steps,which may include all, some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG.3 , where appropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of the method of FIG. 3 , this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 3 .

Social Graph Affinity and Coefficient

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may determinethe social-graph affinity (which may be referred to herein as“affinity”) of various social-graph entities for each other. Affinitymay represent the strength of a relationship or level of interestbetween particular objects associated with the online social network,such as users, concepts, content, actions, advertisements, other objectsassociated with the online social network, or any suitable combinationthereof. Affinity may also be determined with respect to objectsassociated with third-party systems 170 or other suitable systems. Anoverall affinity for a social-graph entity for each user, subjectmatter, or type of content may be established. The overall affinity maychange based on continued monitoring of the actions or relationshipsassociated with the social-graph entity. Although this disclosuredescribes determining particular affinities in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates determining any suitable affinities in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may measure orquantify social-graph affinity using an affinity coefficient (which maybe referred to herein as “coefficient”). The coefficient may representor quantify the strength of a relationship between particular objectsassociated with the online social network. The coefficient may alsorepresent a probability or function that measures a predictedprobability that a user will perform a particular action based on theuser's interest in the action. In this way, a user's future actions maybe predicted based on the user's prior actions, where the coefficientmay be calculated at least in part a the history of the user's actions.Coefficients may be used to predict any number of actions, which may bewithin or outside of the online social network. As an example and not byway of limitation, these actions may include various types ofcommunications, such as sending messages, posting content, or commentingon content; various types of observation actions, such as accessing orviewing profile pages, media, or other suitable content; various typesof coincidence information about two or more social-graph entities, suchas being in the same group, tagged in the same photograph, checked-in atthe same location, or attending the same event; or other suitableactions. Although this disclosure describes measuring affinity in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates measuring affinity inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may use avariety of factors to calculate a coefficient. These factors mayinclude, for example, user actions, types of relationships betweenobjects, location information, other suitable factors, or anycombination thereof. In particular embodiments, different factors may beweighted differently when calculating the coefficient. The weights foreach factor may be static or the weights may change according to, forexample, the user, the type of relationship, the type of action, theuser's location, and so forth. Ratings for the factors may be combinedaccording to their weights to determine an overall coefficient for theuser. As an example and not by way of limitation, particular useractions may be assigned both a rating and a weight while a relationshipassociated with the particular user action is assigned a rating and acorrelating weight (e.g., so the weights total 100%). To calculate thecoefficient of a user towards a particular object, the rating assignedto the user's actions may comprise, for example, 60% of the overallcoefficient, while the relationship between the user and the object maycomprise 40% of the overall coefficient. In particular embodiments, thesocial-networking system 160 may consider a variety of variables whendetermining weights for various factors used to calculate a coefficient,such as, for example, the time since information was accessed, decayfactors, frequency of access, relationship to information orrelationship to the object about which information was accessed,relationship to social-graph entities connected to the object, short- orlong-term averages of user actions, user feedback, other suitablevariables, or any combination thereof. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a coefficient may include a decay factor that causes thestrength of the signal provided by particular actions to decay withtime, such that more recent actions are more relevant when calculatingthe coefficient. The ratings and weights may be continuously updatedbased on continued tracking of the actions upon which the coefficient isbased. Any type of process or algorithm may be employed for assigning,combining, averaging, and so forth the ratings for each factor and theweights assigned to the factors. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may determine coefficients usingmachine-learning algorithms trained on historical actions and past userresponses, or data farmed from users by exposing them to various optionsand measuring responses. Although this disclosure describes calculatingcoefficients in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatescalculating coefficients in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on a user's actions. Social-networking system 160 maymonitor such actions on the online social network, on a third-partysystem 170, on other suitable systems, or any combination thereof. Anysuitable type of user actions may be tracked or monitored. Typical useractions include viewing profile pages, creating or posting content,interacting with content, tagging or being tagged in images, joininggroups, listing and confirming attendance at events, checking-in atlocations, liking particular pages, creating pages, and performing othertasks that facilitate social action. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient based on theuser's actions with particular types of content. The content may beassociated with the online social network, a third-party system 170, oranother suitable system. The content may include users, profile pages,posts, news stories, headlines, instant messages, chat roomconversations, emails, advertisements, pictures, video, music, othersuitable objects, or any combination thereof. Social-networking system160 may analyze a user's actions to determine whether one or more of theactions indicate an affinity for subject matter, content, other users,and so forth. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user maymake frequently posts content related to “coffee” or variants thereof,social-networking system 160 may determine the user has a highcoefficient with respect to the concept “coffee”. Particular actions ortypes of actions may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating thanother actions, which may affect the overall calculated coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, if a first user emails a seconduser, the weight or the rating for the action may be higher than if thefirst user simply views the user-profile page for the second user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on the type of relationship between particularobjects. Referencing the social graph 200, social-networking system 160may analyze the number and/or type of edges 206 connecting particularuser nodes 202 and concept nodes 204 when calculating a coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, user nodes 202 that areconnected by a spouse-type edge (representing that the two users aremarried) may be assigned a higher coefficient than a user nodes 202 thatare connected by a friend-type edge. In other words, depending upon theweights assigned to the actions and relationships for the particularuser, the overall affinity may be determined to be higher for contentabout the user's spouse than for content about the user's friend. Inparticular embodiments, the relationships a user has with another objectmay affect the weights and/or the ratings of the user's actions withrespect to calculating the coefficient for that object. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, if a user is tagged in first photo, butmerely likes a second photo, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient with respect to the first photothan the second photo because having a tagged-in-type relationship withcontent may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating than having alike-type relationship with content. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient for a firstuser based on the relationship one or more second users have with aparticular object. In other words, the connections and coefficientsother users have with an object may affect the first user's coefficientfor the object. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a firstuser is connected to or has a high coefficient for one or more secondusers, and those second users are connected to or have a highcoefficient for a particular object, social-networking system 160 maydetermine that the first user should also have a relatively highcoefficient for the particular object. In particular embodiments, thecoefficient may be based on the degree of separation between particularobjects. The lower coefficient may represent the decreasing likelihoodthat the first user will share an interest in content objects of theuser that is indirectly connected to the first user in the social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-graph entitiesthat are closer in the social graph 200 (i.e., fewer degrees ofseparation) may have a higher coefficient than entities that are furtherapart in the social graph 200.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on location information. Objects that aregeographically closer to each other may be considered to be more relatedor of more interest to each other than more distant objects. Inparticular embodiments, the coefficient of a user towards a particularobject may be based on the proximity of the object's location to acurrent location associated with the user (or the location of a clientsystem 130 of the user). A first user may be more interested in otherusers or concepts that are closer to the first user. As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a user is one mile from an airport and twomiles from a gas station, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient for the airport than the gasstation based on the proximity of the airport to the user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may performparticular actions with respect to a user based on coefficientinformation. Coefficients may be used to predict whether a user willperform a particular action based on the user's interest in the action.A coefficient may be used when generating or presenting any type ofobjects to a user, such as advertisements, search results, news stories,media, messages, notifications, or other suitable objects. Thecoefficient may also be utilized to rank and order such objects, asappropriate. In this way, social-networking system 160 may provideinformation that is relevant to user's interests and currentcircumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find suchinformation of interest. In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate content based on coefficient information.Content objects may be provided or selected based on coefficientsspecific to a user. As an example and not by way of limitation, thecoefficient may be used to generate media for the user, where the usermay be presented with media for which the user has a high overallcoefficient with respect to the media object. As another example and notby way of limitation, the coefficient may be used to generateadvertisements for the user, where the user may be presented withadvertisements for which the user has a high overall coefficient withrespect to the advertised object. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may generate search results based oncoefficient information. Search results for a particular user may bescored or ranked based on the coefficient associated with the searchresults with respect to the querying user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, search results corresponding to objects with highercoefficients may be ranked higher on a search-results page than resultscorresponding to objects having lower coefficients.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient in response to a request for a coefficient from a particularsystem or process. To predict the likely actions a user may take (or maybe the subject of) in a given situation, any process may request acalculated coefficient for a user. The request may also include a set ofweights to use for various factors used to calculate the coefficient.This request may come from a process running on the online socialnetwork, from a third-party system 170 (e.g., via an API or othercommunication channel), or from another suitable system. In response tothe request, social-networking system 160 may calculate the coefficient(or access the coefficient information if it has previously beencalculated and stored). In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may measure an affinity with respect to a particular process.Different processes (both internal and external to the online socialnetwork) may request a coefficient for a particular object or set ofobjects. Social-networking system 160 may provide a measure of affinitythat is relevant to the particular process that requested the measure ofaffinity. In this way, each process receives a measure of affinity thatis tailored for the different context in which the process will use themeasure of affinity.

In connection with social-graph affinity and affinity coefficients,particular embodiments may utilize one or more systems, components,elements, functions, methods, operations, or steps disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 8,402,094, filed 11 Aug. 2006, U.S. Pat. No. 10,304,066, filed22 Dec. 2010, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0166433, filed 23 Dec.2010, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,654,591, filed 1 Oct. 2012, each of which isincorporated by reference.

Systems and Methods

FIG. 4 illustrates an example computer system 400. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 400 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 400 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 400 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 400.Herein, reference to a computer system may encompass a computing device,and vice versa, where appropriate. Moreover, reference to a computersystem may encompass one or more computer systems, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems400. This disclosure contemplates computer system 400 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 400 may be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip(SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, acomputer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computersystem, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, amainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a server, a tablet computer system, or acombination of two or more of these. Where appropriate, computer system400 may include one or more computer systems 400; be unitary ordistributed; span multiple locations; span multiple machines; spanmultiple data centers; or reside in a cloud, which may include one ormore cloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one ormore computer systems 400 may perform without substantial spatial ortemporal limitation one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. As an example and not by way of limitation, oneor more computer systems 400 may perform in real time or in batch modeone or more steps of one or more methods described or illustratedherein. One or more computer systems 400 may perform at different timesor at different locations one or more steps of one or more methodsdescribed or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 400 includes a processor 402,memory 404, storage 406, an input/output (I/O) interface 408, acommunication interface 410, and a bus 412. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 402 includes hardware for executinginstructions, such as those making up a computer program. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, processor 402 mayretrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internal register, aninternal cache, memory 404, or storage 406; decode and execute them; andthen write one or more results to an internal register, an internalcache, memory 404, or storage 406. In particular embodiments, processor402 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, oraddresses. This disclosure contemplates processor 402 including anysuitable number of any suitable internal caches, where appropriate. Asan example and not by way of limitation, processor 402 may include oneor more instruction caches, one or more data caches, and one or moretranslation lookaside buffers (TLBs). Instructions in the instructioncaches may be copies of instructions in memory 404 or storage 406, andthe instruction caches may speed up retrieval of those instructions byprocessor 402. Data in the data caches may be copies of data in memory404 or storage 406 for instructions executing at processor 402 tooperate on; the results of previous instructions executed at processor402 for access by subsequent instructions executing at processor 402 orfor writing to memory 404 or storage 406; or other suitable data. Thedata caches may speed up read or write operations by processor 402. TheTLBs may speed up virtual-address translation for processor 402. Inparticular embodiments, processor 402 may include one or more internalregisters for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosurecontemplates processor 402 including any suitable number of any suitableinternal registers, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 402may include one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 402. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 404 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 402 to execute or data for processor 402 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system400 may load instructions from storage 406 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 400) to memory 404. Processor 402may then load the instructions from memory 404 to an internal registeror internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 402 mayretrieve the instructions from the internal register or internal cacheand decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 402 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor402 may then write one or more of those results to memory 404. Inparticular embodiments, processor 402 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 404 (asopposed to storage 406 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in one ormore internal registers or internal caches or in memory 404 (as opposedto storage 406 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (which may eachinclude an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor 402 tomemory 404. Bus 412 may include one or more memory buses, as describedbelow. In particular embodiments, one or more memory management units(MMUs) reside between processor 402 and memory 404 and facilitateaccesses to memory 404 requested by processor 402. In particularembodiments, memory 404 includes random access memory (RAM). This RAMmay be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate, this RAMmay be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 404 may include one ormore memories 404, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular memory, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 406 includes mass storage for data orinstructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage 406may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flash memory,an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more of these. Storage406 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed) media, whereappropriate. Storage 406 may be internal or external to computer system400, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, storage 406 isnon-volatile, solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, storage 406includes read-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may bemask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM),electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM),or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. Thisdisclosure contemplates mass storage 406 taking any suitable physicalform. Storage 406 may include one or more storage control unitsfacilitating communication between processor 402 and storage 406, whereappropriate. Where appropriate, storage 406 may include one or morestorages 406. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular storage, this disclosure contemplates any suitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 408 includes hardware,software, or both, providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 400 and one or more I/O devices. Computer system400 may include one or more of these I/O devices, where appropriate. Oneor more of these I/O devices may enable communication between a personand computer system 400. As an example and not by way of limitation, anI/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone, monitor, mouse,printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet, touch screen,trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or a combination oftwo or more of these. An I/O device may include one or more sensors.This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices and any suitableI/O interfaces 408 for them. Where appropriate, I/O interface 408 mayinclude one or more device or software drivers enabling processor 402 todrive one or more of these I/O devices. I/O interface 408 may includeone or more I/O interfaces 408, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular I/O interface, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable I/O interface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 410 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 400 and one or more other computer systems 400 or one ormore networks. As an example and not by way of limitation, communicationinterface 410 may include a network interface controller (NIC) ornetwork adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-basednetwork or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter for communicatingwith a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network and any suitable communicationinterface 410 for it. As an example and not by way of limitation,computer system 400 may communicate with an ad hoc network, a personalarea network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of theInternet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portionsof one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As anexample, computer system 400 may communicate with a wireless PAN (WPAN)(such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAXnetwork, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), or other suitablewireless network or a combination of two or more of these. Computersystem 400 may include any suitable communication interface 410 for anyof these networks, where appropriate. Communication interface 410 mayinclude one or more communication interfaces 410, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particularcommunication interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecommunication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 412 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 400 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 412 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 412may include one or more buses 412, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media mayinclude one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits(ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) orapplication-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid harddrives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs),magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppydisk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs),RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitablecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitablecombination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Acomputer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile,non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, whereappropriate.

Miscellaneous

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

The scope of this disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions,variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodimentsdescribed or illustrated herein that a person having ordinary skill inthe art would comprehend. The scope of this disclosure is not limited tothe example embodiments described or illustrated herein. Moreover,although this disclosure describes and illustrates respectiveembodiments herein as including particular components, elements,functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments may includeany combination or permutation of any of the components, elements,functions, operations, or steps described or illustrated anywhere hereinthat a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend.Furthermore, reference in the appended claims to an apparatus or systemor a component of an apparatus or system being adapted to, arranged to,capable of, configured to, enabled to, operable to, or operative toperform a particular function encompasses that apparatus, system,component, whether or not it or that particular function is activated,turned on, or unlocked, as long as that apparatus, system, or componentis so adapted, arranged, capable, configured, enabled, operable, oroperative.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising, by one or more computingdevices: accessing, from a set of profile objects each associated withan entity profile, a set of training objects each associated with anobject-classification; identifying, by an object-classifier algorithm,from a first set of content objects associated with the set of trainingobjects, a first set of features each having a feature score indicatinga correlation value with the object-classification; updating theobject-classifier algorithm based on the first set of features;classifying, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, one or more ofthe profile objects as being associated with the object-classification;identifying, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, from a secondset of content objects associated with the classified profile objects, asecond set of features having feature scores greater than a thresholdfeature score; and updating the object-classifier algorithm based on thesecond set of features.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:classifying, based on the updated object-classifier algorithm based onthe second set of features, one or more profile objects associated withone or more respective users of an online network to determine, for eachuser, an interest of the user in a particular activity or service. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein updating the object-classifier algorithmbased on the second set of features comprises adding, to theobject-classifier algorithm, one or more of the second set of featureshaving feature scores greater than a predetermined threshold featurescore.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: removing, from theobject-classifier algorithm, one or more of the first set of featureshaving a feature score less than the predetermined threshold featurescore.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined thresholdfeature score is based on a percentile of the feature scores of thesecond set of features.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thepredetermined threshold feature score is greater than 90% of the featurescores of the second set of features.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinone or more content objects from the first or second sets of contentobjects comprise one or more of photos, posts, pages, applications,events, locations, or user groups associated with the entity profile. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein one or more content objects from thefirst or second sets of content objects are associated with an onlinesocial network.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more profileobjects of the set of profile objects are associated with one or moreposts on a third-party website.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinclassifying the one or more of the profile objects as being associatedwith the object-classification comprises comparing each profile objectto a set of filtering criteria.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein theset of filtering criteria is based on metadata associated with theprofile objects and the content objects associated with the profileobjects.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises oneor more of: a number of associated comments; inclusion or exclusion ofone or more text strings; inclusion or exclusion of one or morepunctuation marks; an association with one or more object-types; anassociation with one or more languages; an association with one or moreplaces, entities, or resource-types; an association with one or moreother objects; or an association with a particular period of time. 13.The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more punctuation markscomprise one or more of a question mark or exclamation mark.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein training the object-classifier algorithm isfurther based on the object-classifier algorithm trained in a prioriteration of an iterative training process.
 15. The method of claim 1,further comprising: accessing an entity graph comprising a plurality ofnodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each nodecorresponding to a profile object of the set of profile objects eachassociated with the entity profile.
 16. One or more computer-readablenon-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable whenexecuted to: access, from a set of profile objects each associated withan entity profile, a set of training objects each associated with anobject-classification; identify, by an object-classifier algorithm, froma first set of content objects associated with the set of trainingobjects, a first set of features each having a feature score indicatinga correlation value with the object-classification; update theobject-classifier algorithm based on the first set of features;classify, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, one or more of theprofile objects as being associated with the object-classification;identify, by the updated object-classifier algorithm, from a second setof content objects associated with the classified profile objects, asecond set of features having feature scores greater than a thresholdfeature score; and update the object-classifier algorithm based on thesecond set of features.
 17. The media of claim 16, wherein the softwareis further operable when executed to: classify, based on the updatedobject-classifier algorithm based on the second set of features, one ormore profile objects associated with one or more respective users of anonline network to determine, for each user, an interest of the user in aparticular activity or service.
 18. A system comprising: one or moreprocessors; and a memory coupled to the processors comprisinginstructions executable by the processors, the processors operable whenexecuting the instructions to: access, from a set of profile objectseach associated with an entity profile, a set of training objects eachassociated with an object-classification; identify, by anobject-classifier algorithm, from a first set of content objectsassociated with the set of training objects, a first set of featureseach having a feature score indicating a correlation value with theobject-classification; update the object-classifier algorithm based onthe first set of features; classify, by the updated object-classifieralgorithm, one or more of the profile objects as being associated withthe object-classification; identify, by the updated object-classifieralgorithm, from a second set of content objects associated with theclassified profile objects, a second set of features having featurescores greater than a threshold feature score; and update theobject-classifier algorithm based on the second set of features.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the processors are further operable whenexecuting the instructions to: classify, based on the updatedobject-classifier algorithm based on the second set of features, one ormore profile objects associated with one or more respective users of anonline network to determine, for each user, an interest of the user in aparticular activity or service.
 20. The system of claim 18, wherein oneor more content objects from the first or second sets of content objectscomprise one or more of photos, posts, pages, applications, events,locations, or user groups associated with the entity profile.